1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for receiving a broadcasting service in a broadcasting system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a broadcasting service receiving apparatus and method for reducing the number of bits of received broadcasting data in a mobile communication system that provides broadcasting service.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mobile communication systems were developed to provide voice service, ensuring mobility for users. With the rapid development of technology and users' demands, mobile communication systems now provide a variety of services. These services include Short Message Service (SMS), e-mail, Internet service, and broadcasting service. The broadcasting service provides digital broadcasting to users by using high data rates which are now available due to drastic technological development. The digital broadcasting takes various forms of services depending on the media. Digital broadcasting services include Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)-based BroadCast/MultiCast System (BCMCS), and Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) based on Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS).
A description will be made below of a broadcasting service receiving method in a broadcasting receiver illustrated in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a partial block diagram of a typical broadcasting receiver 100.
Referring to FIG. 1, in the broadcasting receiver, a demodulator 101 demodulates a modulated signal received from a broadcasting station and generates soft metric data for the demodulated signal. A deinterleaver (or buffer) 103 deinterleaves the soft metric data. A channel decoder 105 decodes the deinterleaved data in a predetermined method.
In the process, n bits output from the demodulator 101 are provided to the deinterleaver 103 without any processing. The size of the deinterleaver 103 is depth×n. The data depth is defined as a data length stored in the deinterleaver.
Since the broadcasting receiver receives multimedia data compressed by source coding in the broadcasting system, it requires a large-capacity memory buffer. To be more specific, the broadcasting receiver uses a deinterleaver of a mega-bit size for deinterleaving a received signal and a mega-bit×n memory for storing soft metrics. As a result, receiver complexity increases which in turn increases power consumption.
The increasing interest in digital broadcasting is a driving force behind development of many digital broadcasting receivers. To receive better-quality images, algorithms for increasing the performance of a digital broadcasting receiver are under development. Portability is also a requirement for the digital broadcasting receiver because mobility is critical to broadcasting service in a mobile environment. Therefore, decreasing the complexity and power consumption of a digital broadcasting receiver is a challenging issue.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved apparatus and method for receiving a broadcasting service in a broadcasting system.